Interstellar Travel

36% of Americans believe in UFOs, that is, though most Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are actually explained as such mundane things as misidentified meteorological phenomena, astronomical phenomena, aircraft, and so on, there's ~ 5% that are as yet unexplained and that these unexplained UFOs are machines from somewhere other than Earth.

Have you ever observed a UFO that has never been sufficiently explained? Do you believe that some unexplained UFOs are machines from somewhere other than Earth? If so, why (what are your reasons or arguments for believing so)? What evidence is there to support your belief?

Replies to This Discussion

Given my inability to scare up relevant links to Dr. Bone's theories, I take it there isn't wide acceptance of it.

Intellectual snobbery or intellectual skepticism. Science doesn't change instantly with every new theory or new test result that comes along, and that's the way we want it. The fact that we no longer believe we are the center of the universe, that bumps on the head can tell you about a person's personality and intelligence, that we no longer imagine that "humours" are a cause for disease, and many other big changes over the years shows that science can change when the evidence becomes irrefutable.

I find it hard to believe that anything can survive intense gamma ray exposure, but if someone can show me actual evidence, I'm willing to reconsider.

If memory serves again, the good doctor was a researcher at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. It has been a very log time since his presentation, but I remember it well. Maybe look for retired OSU researchers, Food Science. That was long ago, maybe his papers were never uploaded, but an OSU library search might dig them up, then inter-library loan.

Thank you for looking this up. I was aware of the tardigrade desication survival. There is atleast one more organism, if memory serves a species of rotifer, some having survived decades in dry storage.

I wonder if some enterprising, and well funded folks could design a human being with genes from some of these organisms. Sort of the worst kind of outcast, but one with the ability for long term space travel. A little like the pilots of 'Dune'?

I think perhaps developments have slowed down or have become less dramatic. My paternal grandmother who died in the early 1970's grew up with horse-drawn vehicles, gas lighting, and outhouses. By the time she died, most families owned automobiles, there were nationwide electrical networks, and an American had walked on the moon.

I was born in 1946, and I don't think I've seen any changes nearly THAT dramatic in MY lifetime. If I've missed something, fill me in. The Internet came along, cars have become more efficient, and nobody's been on the moon in a long, long time.

Take one thing many people would cite as a huge advance: computers. They were going to make bank transactions faster and were going to save paper. Actually, it takes, if anything, LONGER to get anything done at the bank while we wait for the computer system to respond to the teller. And, jeez, all the computer has become is a way to waste even more paper. Talk about not living up to the supposed promise. On the other hand, I now have access to unlimited quantities of free porn, which is the one thing most of us (about 90% of males and about 66% of females) would miss the most.

One problem is that there have been so many changes in the last 50 years that we don't even pay attention to most of them. We overlook mechanical hearts that are continually being improved. Few people realize that we now have computer controlled insulin pumps that can virtually replace a pancreas - although costs are still to high for most people who need them.

We've gone from prosthetic limbs being crude, static lumps of hard material to dynamic composite devices that can compete at the Olympic level. Last week I read about the clinical trials of the first bionic eye. Did I mention artificial cochlea implants?